River of tears
salty wet
from giving birth
womb of winds
the storm of floods
Texas, Louisiana –
death floats in streets
Buffoon flies in
for TV lens
photo opportunity
politicians only
talk in numbers,
$7.5 million –
auction begins
South East Asia
levee breaks
displacement figure
outbids the cash of
American leaders
the numbers crunch
like bullets fired
from a machine gun
Elsewhere in the
land of the free
corn crops rot as
vast underground lakes,
aquifers, are bled dry;
just caverns now
Without water
we cannot survive:
with flood water
we cannot survive.
Forget the oil wars –
the next ‘great’ war
will be for water.
Des Mannay
“Focused on hard-hitting social issues… poems which made a statement”’ (Sabotage Reviews). “One can almost hear the words thumping aloud on the page. One can only imagine the rapturous response of an audience listening” (Menna Elfyn)
Des Mannay is the winner of the ‘rethinkyourmind’ poetry competition (2015). Placed 2nd and highly commended in the Disability Arts Cymru poetry Competition (2015). ‘Gold Award’ winner in the Creative Futures Literary Awards (2015), shortlisted for the erbacce-prize for poetry (2015, and 2016), Welsh Poetry Competition (2015), The John Tripp and Idris Davies poetry competition; part of Rhymney Valley Literature and Arts Festival 2016, and the Disability Arts Cymru poetry Competition (2016)
Des has performed at numerous venues, including the ‘Unity’ Festival, ‘Maindee’ Festival, ‘Hub’ Festival, ‘Stoke Newington Literature Festival’, KAYA Festival of World Music & Arts, Merthyr Rising, The Seed Festival and Walls:Muriau – Welsh mental health arts festival. He has poems published in ‘I Am Not A Silent Poet’ online journal, ‘The Angry Manifesto’, ‘Proletarian Poetry’, ‘Yellow Chair Review’, ‘Indiana Voice Journal’, ‘Stand Up And Spit’, ‘Red Poets’, ‘The Scum Gentry’ ‘The Round Up’, ‘Poetry24’, ‘Winning Writers’ and work in a number of poetry anthologies. Des is on facebook as “The stuff wot I wrote’ Des Mannay – hooligan Poet” and Twitter as @hooliganpoet